Dark Enemies
by J0SMAT
Summary: The changelings attack the Crystal Empire, but when Celestia believes that it is unnecessary for Twilight and her friends to help, Twilight begins to get paranoid. Things get too out of hand and even Chrysalis begs for help. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy have to go stop the evil king, but things aren't as simple as that.
1. Chapter 1

Thousands of dark creatures marched through frozen tundra toward the Crystal Empire. These creatures were a strange mix between insects and ponies, they were the Changelings. The Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis, knew that the crystal heart at the center of the empire was the source of the love for the crystal ponies, exactly what she needs. The march came to a sudden stop when Chrysalis heard a sudden "Eek" followed by a few thuds.

"What are you idiots doing?" asked the queen, she knew that they're close enough to the empire to be seen. There were five hive members lying on the ground on top of each other. They tripped over each other, but the first one tripped over a strange object. Chrysalis walked over and examined what looked like a red horn. "Well, you've found something very interesting," she said to the Changeling that tripped over it, "but that does not excuse you for wasting my time!" She hit him on the head with the horn, making him dizzy. Chrysalis then handed the horn to a changeling in extra armor and announced, "Now, my children, change into Crystal Ponies and get that heart!" The entire swarm started changing. Chrysalis looked at her beloved children and then changed her form. Green fire quickly enveloped her body and when it faded she was Cadence, the crystal princess.

Shining Armor and Cadence finally got back to their castle. The were in Canterlot to celebrate Shining's sister, Twilight, becoming an alicorn. Cadence decided to take a quick shower to wash up. As, Shining Armor laid on their bed, reading the news, he realized that he was extremely tired, liquid pride always makes him tired, and it was about 10:30 p.m. so it was rather dark out. He shut his eyes and drifted to sleep.

Cadence opened the door and saw her husband asleep. She crept in and went over to the bed. She stroke his mane, which made his eyes open slightly. "Sorry honey, I didn't mean to wake you," she said softly.

Shining Armor yawned. He looked at the clock and noticed that he didn't get much sleeping done. Then he realized something strange, he could still hear the water in the shower. He looked up and felt Cadence's mane, "You're mane's still dry, didn't you take a shower?"

Cadence pushed Shining's hooves against the bed and held them there. Her horn started glowing green and she whispered, "Why don't you go back to sleep?"

Shining tried to get up but suddenly he blacked out.

Meanwhile, in Ponyville

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash where high up in the sky, testing out Twilight's new wings. "I don't think this is a good idea Rainbow, I still need to read a few more books about flying first," she said as she looked down at the ground. Rainbow Dash wanted to see if she could do a Sonic Rainboom.

"There's nothing to it Twilight, it's just like a hop, skip, and a jump, only down!" encouraged her blue pegasus friend.

Twilight stood up and tried to forget her nerves. I'm acting just like Fluttershy, she thought to herself. She looked down once again and finally took the leap of faith. She fell and fell and fell until SPLAT!

She landed right into Pinkie Pie's giant cake. She moaned and wondered how she didn't see the cake before.

"TWILIGHT! I'VE BEEN SEARCHING ALL OVER FOR YOU!" cheered the usually always enthusiastic Pinkie Pie, "I made this cake to celebrate the super duper fun NEW Twilight! I mean, who wouldn't want to celebrate something this amazing?" (most Bronies wouldn't)

Rainbow Dash zoomed down and hollered, "That was awesome! Not as awesome as me of course but I'm sure that if you practice, you could be almost close to my level of coolness."

Twilight rolled her eyes, but stopped when she saw what was above her. Several Solar Guards flew above them, heading in the direction of the Crystal Empire. She tried to ask them what's going on but none of them seemed to pay attention to her. She figured that there must be something happening, something bad.

Later, Twilight and her friends were waiting at the doors of Celestia's castle. "What do you mean I can't come in? I'm a princess now!" Twilight asked angrily to the guards.

"Sorry," one said, "But Princess Celestia said not to let anypony in, even you, 'Twilight'."

"Come on sugarcube, if the princess wanted to see us she would write a letter," said Twilight's honest friend, Applejack. The rest of her friends seemed to agree.

Inside, Celestia, Luna, and Discord discussed what was going on. "But Sister, Twilight and her friends would be able to help us."

Luna disagreed, "She's still not ready, even with here alicorn powers, she failed against the Changelings before, only Cadence and Shining Armor could stop those creatures.

"But that was before, she reformed you and Discord, overcame plenty of challenges, learned the one thing that Starswirl the Bearded couldn't, and even stopped the return of... it."

"He has a name, use it. And besides, she didn't defeat Sombra, the dragon named Spike did."

Celestia was getting tired of arguing with her sister. She turned to Discord and asked, "You've been unusually quiet, Discord, what do you think?"

"Well I think that you two are so cute together, I didn't want to interrupt you silly little fighting," smirked the mix matched draconquise. Celestia gave a look that said 'That wasn't what I meant'. "I personally agree with both of you. I do think that Twilight should be in on this but I think that Lun Luns right about her not doing much. And might I add that she didn't reform me, Fluttershy did. I also think that both of you are taking this way too seriously."

"You're not helping, Discord," said Celestia.

"I'm doing what I can. Since you have me stuck in this castle all day I can't have my fun."

"You turned my sister's bed into jello," said Luna.

Discord burst out laughing, "That was hilarious! Did you see how high she bounced?"  
Both sisters watched as Discord nearly laughed, then coughed, himself to death.

"I still don't see what you saw in him, big sister."

Twilight paced around the library as her worried friends watched. "What if she doesn't trust me anymore? What if becoming an alicorn really was bad? What if she won't teach me anymore because she thinks I'll use her magic to betray her?" She picked up Spike and shouted, "I WOULD NEVER BETRAY HER!"

"Uh... I know," Spike responded, confused.

Twilight dropped Spike and he landed with a thud. "What if she's testing me? What if I'm already failing?!"

"Twi', don't start another sentence with 'What if'. You're just stressing yourself out s'more," said Applejack.

"Yes, darling, you simply must get a grip on yourself. You ever want to be too over dramatic," agreed Rarity.

"Well you're not one to talk, miss 'prim and proper'. Besides, we could just go to the Crystal Empire and see what's up," said Rainbow Dash.

Ahm sure that's a bad idea, RD, the princess probably wants us to stay here until the te comes."

"Or maybe w-we could j-just wait till it's a-all over, then we c-could read about it in t-the n-news?" asked Fluttershy, who knew that whatever's happening, it must be dangerous.

"I guess it must not be too serious," said Twilight, "If it were, we'd be the first to be informed.

Just then, Spike barfed up a scroll from the princess. Twilight takes it and reads it aloud,

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, I must inform you that the changelings have returned and are currently attacking the Crystal Empire. Although you may be capable of handling this threat, it was voted for you to stay here. You and your friends may be needed if things get out of hand. No hard feelings, Princess Celestia."

The six ponies and Spike stood in disbelief. "C'mon y'all, let's give Twilight a moment alone," said Applejack. Before she leaves tells Twilight, "She just doesn't want y'all hurt, it ain't because you not her student any more."

Twilight read the letter over and over again. "It just doesn't make sense. We beat the changelings before... And who voted? And who voted for what? My brother and sister-in-law are in trouble and I'm just supposed to stay here?!" She looks in the mirror and realizes that she's talking to herself, "Great, Twilight, now you're talking to yourself," She stops to facehoof, "I did it again."


	2. Chapter 2

Chrysalis watched as her changelings placed the crystal ponies into cocoons. The crystal ponies were completely hopeless. Shining Armor and Princess Cadence were imprisoned in an area that the changelings found on accident. To get to the married couple, a pony had to down at least one hundred stairs, then back up another staircase. Chrysalis had to read a couple books, just to open the cursed door in between the two staircases. As Chrysalis watched over her new empire, see realized that the power of the Crystal Heart was only powered by the love of the citizens of the Crystal Empire. The love was fading quickly. She knew that she had to pretend to be the princess and feed off of the love from the ponies, but the heart had so much love that she felt like it would power her forever. As she thinks about how she'll make the crystal ponies happy again, an object that was carefully encased in a glass container suddenly glows bright red. The object was the same item that Chrysalis found earlier. A purple aura consumes the container and soon it cracks and breaks. "Huh?!" Chrysalis watches as the horn regenerates a body. A shadowy black mane forms and then the face. A strong body appears, followed by its legs and tail. The figure was wearing armor on his neck and hooves, a red king cape that covered his cutie mark, and an evil looking crown. When he opened his eyes it revealed that he had green eyes with blood red pupils and the purple aura coming from his eyes like fire. "Who... or what are you?" asked a frightened Chrysalis.

The figure paused for a moment, analyzing the insect/pony with holes in her feet. He then looked outside to see the Crystal Empire completely void of love. "I am King Sombra," he said, not looking away from the window.

Chrysalis was confused. "Uh, king of what?"

Sombra turned to look at her. "I was the king of the Crystal Empire, until the two princesses turned me to shadow a thousand years ago."

Chrysalis was shocked. She heard about the incident a thousand years ago, but she didn't hear anything about the Crystal Empire being affected. In fact, she doesn't recall anything about the Crystal Empire until it reappeared. "How are you alive?"

"After I was turned to shadow a returned when the empire returned. Not only did I curse the empire, but I cursed myself. Whenever the entire Crystal Empire is out of love, I am able to regenerate my body."

"Well, how did your horn fall off?"

"... The empire returned before, and I..." Sombra let out a loud angry yell, causing changeling guards to rush toward the room. Chrysalis waves for them to leave. "That dragon, that small little runt delivered the heart and the love from my slaves..."

Chrysalis was now really intrigued. What did he mean by 'slaves?' "Calm down Sombra. I have a plan on how we can both get what we want."

"Queen! Celestia's troops are attacking!" said a changeling guard. Chrysalis rushed to the window and Sombra followed slowly.

"Get the hive to attack! They can transform into their guards an-"

"No need," says Sombra, who then jumps out and lands into the ground. A shadow appears where he landed and huge black crystals emerge. The aim for the Solar Guards and cut through their bodies. The guards try to attack but the crystals overpower them and kill them. Some try to retreat but changeling guards follow and kill.

"Very impressive," says Chrysalis as she giggles.

* * *

Fluttershy feeds her animals and makes sure that everyone's happy. Angel always gives her a rough time, he doesn't want to eat the boring, disgusting healthy foods, but with 'the stare' he could eat at least a few bites. Fluttershy then leaves her cottage and begins to walk to Ponyville, when all of a sudden CRASH! A grey pegasus with a yellow mane crash lands on top of her.

"Yay! I found you!" cheers the cross-eyed pegasus.

" Uh hi Derpy, lovely day to day, isn't it?" moaned Fluttershy, who felt like her back was broken.

"Sure is! I helped by placing that cloud over there!" Derpy pointed to the only dark rain cloud in the sky. "I know, it's awesome. But as a mailpony, wait... I'm a female, not a male... So as a female pony, it's my duty, tee hee 'duty', to bring you this letter!"

Fluttershy took the envelope that looked as though it was dropped, folded, washed, and even run over from Derpy. "Thank you." She opened the letter and started to read it but see realized that one of Derpy's eyes was staring at her. "Um, don't you have to deliver more mail?"

"Reeeead iiiiit..." hissed Derpy.

"Ok..." Fluttershy began to read, but stopped every now and then to look at Derpy smiling at her. "Dear Fluttershy, I'm inviting all of our friends to attend a 'party' at the library. Please come, and don't tell anypony. Your friend, Twilight." Fluttershy looks up at Derpy. "Oops, I guess you weren't supposed to her that. Promise you won't tell anypony?"

Derpy tilted her head slightly. "What now?"

Fluttershy sighed, "Nothing"


	3. Chapter 3

Twilight's friends gathered at the library. "Alright everypony, I know why the princess won't allow us to go!"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "You're still talking about that?"

"Yes, and I am at least 60% sure that this is just another test! We just have to go to the Crystal Empire!"

The other ponies agreed to go as long as it would calm Twilight down. But a few minutes after they left, a bright flash swelled the room. "Twilight... Sparkle?" The draconquisse looked around but realized he was too late.

"D-D-Discord!" shouted Spike.

"Huh? Well well well, if it isn't Twilight's slave," teased Discord.

"I'm not her slave! I'm her faithful servant."

"Slave, servant, same thing... So where's Twilight and the others?"

"Oh, they went to visit the Crystal Empire. Twilight doesn't think that Celestia trusts her anymore."

"Great... Now I have to go find them. Just because the 'princess' is too lazy to do anything herself!" He looks over and sees five necklaces and a crown, "Might as well take these." Discord starts to snap his fingers but stops to say, "This is the first time we've ever actually had time to talk, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Hm... Let's never let this happen again, shall we?" Before Spike could answer, Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared.

All six ponies were on board the train. Applejack sighed and gave up trying to reassure Twilight that everything's fine. But as they got closer to the empire, she noticed how different it was. "Look y'all!" She pointed to what looked like the exact opposite of what they remembered. Everything that once was shiny was turned shadowy black. The crystal ponies were chained by the neck and mining for crystals. The entire empire was swarmed with Changeling guards. The most frightening thing was seeing lifeless bodies of Solar Guards. The train conductor slammed the brakes on but it was too late. At least one hundred (which isn't that many compared to the entire swarm) Changelings saw them and started to fly over. But something beat them to the train. Large crystals shot out from the engine. The other ponies on board ran towards the exits. Twilight and the others ran too, but they knew what was happening. It was Sombra.

"I'm so stupid!" said Twilight to herself, "I should of brought the Elements of Harmony!"

"No time to worry about that now! Come on!" said Rainbow Dash. She flew over and picked up Applejack, Fluttershy picked up Pinkie Pie, and soon Twilight picked up Rarity and they flew off. Their went a lot of other ponies that were on the train, but the ones that didn't escape or get killed were caged by crystals. A large crystal was coming straight towards Twilight and all she saw was a flash, then a snap followed by another flash, and then they were safe. The chaos was over, ironically thanks to the spirit of chaos, who teleported them to the castle.

"Twilight Sparkle, where were you?" asked the majestic princess of the sun.

"I-I'm sorry... I was..." stammered Twilight. She knew she was in trouble.


	4. Chapter 4

The dark king and queen watched their empire. "I almost had them!" shouted Sombra.

"Don't worry sweetie, we'll get them next time," said Chrysalis.

"We'd better. And don't call me that," growled Sombra.

"Fine." Chrysalis was getting tired and hungry. Her changelings had no love to feed on and she was even weakening. "Sombra, my Changelings and I feed on the love of others and so far you're only causing anger and hatred."

Sombra looked at her and then walked away from the balcony. "Love is useless."

"Twilight, there' a reason why you were not informed," said Celestia, "The vote was two to one in favor of you staying here. It was to keep you safe. You're too valuable now that you're a princess."

Twilight started to understand. "Can I atleast hear who voted for what?"

Celestia looked at Discord and sighed. "I'm sorry Twilight, but Luna and I voted for you to stay here. After I thought things through, I didn't think it was necessary for you to be a part of this."

Now Twilight was back to not understanding again. "Discord trusted me? And you didn't?!" She looked at Discord and Celestia. Two people who seemed to be the complete opposite.

"Like I said, it was to keep you safe. Besides, I'm sure everything is under control."  
Twilight immediately lowered her head and said, "It's not."

Now Celestia was the one who didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

Twilight seemed to depressed to answer so Applejack stepped forward and said, "When we went to the Crystal Empire we saw that things are definitely not under control. We saw the Changelings and then... dark crystals... thee same crystals that King Sombra used before."

Luna, who was listening from another room, walked in. "You six said that King Sombra was killed. How could he possibly be back a third time?"

"It seems that dark enemies never truly die," whispered Celestia, in disbelief.

"That big meany certainly is back!" Pinkie Pie shouted, "But that's not all! He's either killing everypony, or turning them into slaves!"

Now Celestia was extremely worried. The accident from one thousand years ago still curses Equestria.

"Sister, we have to do something. I promise I won't let that demon cloud my vision again." Luna stood confident but she knew that there was always the possibility of becoming Nightmare Moon again.

Celestia opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a guard pony who burst through the door. "Princess, Ponyville is under attack!"

Two best friends, Lyra and Bon Bon, were peacefully walking through Ponyville. "Lyra, you're crazy. There's no such thing."

"But they're real! And they only have hair on their head! As far as I know," said Lyra. But before Bon Bon could argue, a Changeling tackled her. "Bon Bon!"

Millions of changelings swarmed Ponyville. The placed ponies in cocoons which were then carried away by other changelings. Some changelings tricked ponies by transforming into other ponies.

"Oh hi Carrot Top!" said Rose, an Earth pony with a rose cutie mark, to a yellow Earth pony with a cutie mark with three carrots. Carrot Top started moving in closer. "Um, Carrot Top?" Rose was knocked out with a branch and carried away. Soon Rose, Bon Bon, Seafoam, Linky, Lily, Lemon Drop, Lemon Hearts, Carrot Top, Caramel, Big Macintosh, Cloud Kicker, Twist, and Dinky were all cocooned and on their way to the new evil Crystal Empire to become slaves. (Yes, I literally looked up all these ponies, they're not made up) All of this happened before Celestia, Luna, Discord, Twilight, and her friends could get there.

Celestia's horn started to glow and time around them seemed to slow down. With this advantage, they stopped the Changelings from taking any more ponies. But it was already too late for the thirteen ponies.

These ponies were taken to the Crystal Castle, where they were put in chains and forced to mine. " I want to go home!" cried Dinky, "I miss mommy!"

"Don't worry, we'll find a way home," reassured a blue Earth pony with a greyish mane named Linky.

"Eeyup," agreed Macintosh.

They were forced into a cave that led underneath the empire. Hundreds of crystal ponies along with some of the ponies from the train were mining. Changelings hooked the chains to the others and left them to work. As the day went on, the ponies sang songs to pass the time. Some of the songs were about hope, but whenever they heard steel horseshoes coming their way they quickly changed their songs to be about their 'great' king. Chrysalis never went to the caves. She was becoming weak with all of the hatred in her empire. She then realized that it wasn't her empire, it was Sombra's. This didn't go how she planned and she knew she had to get out of there. But then Sombra would find her and kill her, although he already was, very slowly.

Ponyville was a mess, literally and mentally. Ponies wept for their missing friends and family members. Even Pinkie didn't know how to bring a smile on their faces. Most of them didn't want to talk about it. Some were lucky enough to be saved when Celestia came, but still terrified. The spirit of chaos even felt bad. Nopony knew what would happen to their loved ones and that scared them, but not knowing what would happen next petrified them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for such a long delay, the last line in the last chapter (if you can even remember the last chapter) said "not knowing what would happen next" was added in because I had no idea what to do next. In fact I still have no clue what this chapter is going to be about but sailorlyoko4life made a review telling me to continue so here it is...**

Equestria and the New Crystal Empire were now officially at war. Princess Celestia knew that she had to start fighting back. As she and Luna discussed the plans, while Discord was playing pranks on the guards, the dark king Sombra was thinking over plans of his own. Chrysalis was dying without any love to feed on, but she had a plan. If her Changelings could King Sombra, she could take over again and rule her way. The only problem was that her children were also weak and almost useless. They used most of what was left their energy attacking Ponyville. Her only option, other than begging for mercy from Celestia, was to influence the slaves to rebel. The slave's quarters were in the basement of the castle. It was surprisingly big but with all the slaves housed down there it was crowded. Before Chrysalis walked in she used as much magic as she could salvage to transform into a light blue female unicorn with a minty green mane and a nice voice that was nothing like her own creepy voice. She walked in and almost felt sorry for the slaves. She saw children who were without parents and saw some weeping over their family members who they will never see again. Chrysalis started to think that the slaves were to emotionally drained to fight. "Everypony listen up! If we work together we can defeat King Sombra and be free again?"

"But what about Chrysalis and the Changelings?" asked somepony.

"I know for a fact that they won't try to harm us."

"How do you know?" asked somepony else.

"The king wants to spread fear and hatred. The Changelings need love."

"But we don't have anything to fight with," said the first pony.

Chrysalis didn't think that through. She tried to think of something they can use but it was useless. Even though the ponies greatly outnumbered Sombra they still didn't have a chance. She could get some of her Changelings to find weapons but Sombra would get suspicious. But then she finally thought of something. "You can use the pickaxes you use to mine. Sombra always comes down to the mines to watch us work. When he comes down tomorrow, we'll take him by surprise!"

The ponies looked at each other and murmured. They stopped and started cheering. Tomorrow they were going to be free.

While things were starting to look up in the Crystal Empire, the exact opposite was happening in Ponyville. Friends were without friends and family members were missing. Lyra played her harp (or whatever it is) as she thought about Bon Bon being gone gone (sorry, couldn't resist putting a little rhyme/joke there). Derpy was looking for her daughter Dinky, hoping that she wasn't taken away. "It's just like a thousand years ago," said Celestia from the balcony of the castle. Even from there she could see them crying.

"Well I think we should do something," said Discord who was relaxing on a small couch made of apples. He picked out an apple and started eating it as Luna walked in.

"Sister, the solar and lunar guards are ready to attack," she said.

Celestia didn't respond. She knew that Sombra wouldn't be defeated as easily as he was last time. The first time he came was the worse though. That war lasted for what seemed like after his first defeat he was still causing pain. "Luna, you want to defeat Sombra, right?"

"Of course. I won't let what happened last time happen again."

"Are you sure? He might try to use you again."

"Don't worry, Tia"

"I just don't want you hurt."

"Pardon my interruption," said Discord, "But what are you two talking about?"

**I know it kind of ends in an odd place (and it's kind of short) but I need to look something up before I continue**

**Sincerely your not so faithful writer,**

**J0SMAT**


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